Visual Link Learn Spanish Newsletter (V:1; I:7)

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Learn Spanish Words of the Week -----
Words taken from Basic Needs, Section 1 of our Complete Course

	English	Spanish
Monday	I can	(Yo) Puedo
Tuesday	He can	(El) Puede
Wednesday	She can	(Ella) Puede
Thursday	You can	(Usted) Puede
Friday	(to) read	leer
Saturday	the book	el libro
Sunday	the magazine	la revista

Learn Spanish Culture ----- ¡Usted habla muy bien!

This week I wanted to talk a little about pronunciation. In Spanish, you could know thousands of words and know how to put them together into sentences, but if you don't use good pronunciation, you'll never be understood. In-fact, your efforts to communicate in Spanish will have been in vain.

On the other hand, if you really take the time to learn Spanish pronunciation, native speakers are very impressed when you speak to them. You may not have perfect grammar or a very extensive vocabulary, but if you have good pronunciation, native speakers will usually say, "¡Usted habla muy bien!", or in English "You speak very well!". The pronunciation is the key! They'll think you are a great Spanish speaker just by having good solid pronunciation skills!

Many people make the mistake of thinking that because they took Spanish in Junior High, High School, or even College, they automatically have great pronunciation skills when in-fact, they may not be understood by a native speaker at all.

As the director of the Institute, I started teaching our course through Weber State University as an online course for the first time in January of this year. At the first of the course, I gave my students a pronunciation assignment. They had one week to learn our Pronunciation CD-ROM software and then turn in an audio recording in Spanish. I was amazed when I listened to them. A few of them had obviously not practiced with the software, but for the most part, the students sounded similar to native Spanish speakers.

You don't have to be a College student to do well in pronunciation, people of all ages and backgrounds have been able to sound similar to native speakers by using our program. Now is your chance. By learning pronunciation now, you can continue with your goal of learning Spanish!

¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until next week!)


David S. Clark -- President
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com